Abandoned Clothing Mill Photography Workshop

The Site: Originally built in 1910 as a silk mill, this mill employed 110 people by 1914. Of those, fourteen were boys and twenty eight were girls under the age of sixteen. When synthetic Rayon was introduced the decline for silk declined and the factory went out of business, laying off all of its mostly female workforce.

The mill sat vacant until it was purchased to consolidate three factories in the 1930s. It mainly produced girls' and ladies' dresses. One of the economic tentpoles of the region, this factory continued to operate with a clothing outlet on the bottom floor until the early 1990s, when cheaper garment manufacturing in the south drove it out of business. View my website gallery here. View photographs by others from previous workshops here.

The Workshop: During the workshop I will be on hand to help you get better shots - these environments can be pretty tough to navigate photographically and I encourage you to come with questions. There will be a tour and a photography demo lesson, but you are not required to attend them. I know some of you are just taking the tour to see the location, and if that's the case I'll stay out of your way and let you do your thing. Learning to use a tripod, what file format to shoot in, how to compose shots better, what ISO, F-Stop, and shutter speed affect, and how to do things like exposure bracketing are very important to your results. Don't feel afraid to ask me even questions that may seem silly to you. I want you to leave with pictures you're proud of. I've been doing this for a while and want you to learn from my mistakes and successes.

Safety: You need to be very aware of your safety. I encourage you to always pay attention to your surroundings. A site manager will be on hand and following their directions is critical. If you do not you may be asked to leave the site. You will be asked to sign a waiver before you enter acknowledging that you are entering a potentially unsafe environment and that you will not hold either the owners or myself liable for any harm that may befall you or your equipment. Obviously the first priority on the trip, even before taking great pictures, is making sure that you are safe - but you will need to be the one looking out for that.

What to bring:
- a bottle of water
- sturdy boots that protect your feet
- your tripod
- a fully charged cell phone
- your camera manual if you're unsure how to change settings. I can help you find the information you need in the manual but most cameras have their own ways of accessing features and changing settings and that makes things a lot easier.
- It's not necessary but a remote shutter switch is a nice thing to have and you can get a cheap one on Amazon for about $6 depending on your camera.

By signing up you agree to the following terms: Please make sure you check the email associated with your Paypal account for confirmation/updates! Your Paypal receipt is your confirmation, an email will follow with further details no less than a week prior to the event. You will need to sign a waiver to participate in this event, a sample of which can be found here. By signing up for this workshop you agree not to use information attained before or during the workshop to illegally trespass or set up alternate workshops/events. Because of the extremely limited tour spots there are NO REFUNDS UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES if you have signed up for the tour except in case of workshop cancellation. You may give a paid spot in the workshop to someone else if you are unable to attend but admission may not be transferred to another event.

Any questions? Send me a note at admin@abandonedamerica.org - if the PayPal link is immediately below this there are still open spots.

THIS WORKSHOP HAS ENDED. There are no current plans for future dates.

Important: Please make sure you check the email associated with your Paypal account for confirmation/updates!

Comments

By Amy McGovern: WOW!! Great place!! I recently took outside shots of this. Downrigging Weekend is the same day... Wish I could so both.

By Eleanor Martin: Is there any plans for a 2015 workshops?

By Angela: Hi Matt, Just wondering will this workshop be offered again? Thanks Look forwarding to see you soon!

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